Hot Dance Club Songs

The Dance Club Songs chart[1] (previously known as Hot Dance Club Songs, Club Play Singles, Hot Dance Club Play, Hot Dance/Disco and Disco Action) is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs. It is compiled by Billboard exclusively from playlists submitted by nightclubdisc jockeys who must apply and meet certain criteria to become "Billboard-reporting DJs."

Dance Club Songs has undergone several incarnations since its inception in 1974. Originally a top-ten list of tracks that garnered the largest audience response in New York Citydiscothèques, the chart began on October 26, 1974 under the title Disco Action. The chart went on to feature playlists from various cities around the country from week to week. Billboard continued to run regional and city-specific charts throughout 1975 and 1976 until the issue dated August 28, 1976, when a thirty-position National Disco Action Top 30 premiered. This quickly expanded to forty positions, then in 1979 the chart expanded to sixty positions, then eighty, and eventually reached 100 positions from 1979 until 1981, when it was reduced to eighty again.[3]

During the first half of the 1980s the chart maintained eighty slots until March 16, 1985 when the Disco charts were splintered and renamed. Two charts appeared: Hot Dance/Disco, which ranked club play (fifty positions), and Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales, which ranked 12-inch single (or maxi-single) sales (also fifty positions, now reduced to ten and available through Billboard.biz only).

Only Hot Dance Club Songs and still exists today.[4] In 2003 Billboard introduced the Hot Dance Airplay chart (now known as Dance/Mix Show Airplay), which is based solely on radio airplay of six dance music stations and top 40 mix shows electronically monitored by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems.[5] These stations are also a part of the electronically monitored panel that encompasses the Hot 100.

On January 26, 2013, Billboard added a new chart, Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, which tracks the 50 most popular Dance and Electronic singles and tracks based on digital single sales, streaming, radio airplay, and club play as reported on the component Dance/Electronic Digital Songs, Dance/Electronic Streaming Songs, and Dance Club Songs charts. Radio airplay is not limited to that counted on the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart. [6]

Although the disco chart began reporting popular songs in New York City nightclubs, Billboard soon expanded coverage to feature multiple charts each week which highlighted playlists in various cities such as San Francisco, San Diego, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, Detroit and Houston (among others). During this time, Billboard rival publication Record World was the first to compile a dance chart which incorporated club play on a national level. Noted Billboard statistician Joel Whitburn has since "adopted" Record Worlds chart data from the weeks between March 29, 1975 and August 21, 1976 into Billboards club play history. For the sake of continuity, Record Worlds national chart is incorporated into both Whitburn's Dance/Disco publication (via his Record Research company) as well as the 1975 and 1976 number-ones lists.[3]

With the issue dated August 28, 1976, Billboard premiered its own national chart (National Disco Action Top 30) and their data is used from this date forward.[3]

Madonna (pictured) holds the record for most hits on the chart since its establishment with 46, and as of 2015 is the only living and active artist so far to have charted the Dance Club Songs chart continuously since 1982.[7] "Holiday"/"Lucky Star" (1983) marked her first number one on the chart, with "Bitch I'm Madonna" (2015) being her most recent.[2]

From the dance chart's inception until the week of February 16, 1991, several (or even all) songs on an EP, album or 12-inch single could occupy the same position if more than one track from a release was receiving significant play in clubs (for example, Donna Summer charted several full-length albums, both Chaka Khan and Madonna have hit number one with remix albums). Chart entries like this were especially prevalent during the disco era, where an entire side of an album would contain several songs segued together seamlessly to replicate a night of dancing in a club. Beginning with the February 23, 1991 issue, the dance chart became "song specific," meaning only one song could occupy each position at a time.[3]

Hot Dance Club Songs is one of the last remaining Billboard charts that remains "frozen" for one week (either the last week in December or the first week in January, depending on the calendar year). As this chart is not monitored electronically like most of the other charts, all songs "hold" their positions for the additional week, and still have the frozen week added to their "weeks on chart" total.

Madonna holds the record for the most chart hits, the most top-twenty hits, the most top-ten hits[21] and the most total weeks at number one (74 weeks).[7]

The Trammps are the only act to replace themselves at number one (issue date June 5, 1976, "That's Where the Happy People Go" → "Disco Party").[3]

Kristine W's first nine chart entries all hit number one. She therefore held the record for the longest streak of uninterrupted chart-toppers, which was broken in 2006 with the number-two peak of "I'll Be Your Light".[13]Katy Perry and Jennifer Lopez bested this feat in 2012, when each artist earned their tenth consecutive number-one. They both later earned their eleventh consecutive number-one hits in 2013 and Perry continued with her twelfth with "Unconditionally".[24] Perry then broke the tie with "Dark Horse"[25] and extended her own mark with "Birthday" and "This Is How We Do" in 2014. Perry currently holds the record for most consecutive number-one songs with 15.

"One Word" by Kelly Osbourne made chart history on June 18, 2005 when it became the first song to simultaneously top the Hot Dance Club Songs, Hot Dance Singles Sales and Hot Dance Airplay charts.

Up until her death on May 17, 2012, Donna Summer was the only active artist to have placed a single on this chart in all five decades since its inception, starting with "Love to Love You Baby" in 1975 and ending with her final number one, "To Paris with Love" for the chart week ending November 6, 2010. With Summer's death, Madonna becomes the only living active artist to continue charting, as each of her singles have reached the top ten in her four-decade run from 1982 to the present.

Beyoncé, Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland are the only artists on this chart to reach number one as members of a group (Destiny's Child) and as solo artists. The same three artists also achieved that accomplishment on the Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart.

Lady Gaga gained ten number-one hits on Hot Dance Club Songs faster than any other artist in history, in two years, five months, and three weeks. The previous record was held by Rihanna, who earned her first ten number-one hits in a span of four years and five months.[16]

Enrique Iglesias holds the record for most number-one songs by a solo male artist, with 13.

Kylie Minogue made chart history on the week dated March 5, 2011 for being the first artist to have two songs in the top three of the Hot Dance/Club Songs chart simultaneously. This milestone was achieved with the songs "Better than Today" from her studio album Aphrodite, and "Higher", a collaboration done with Taio Cruz.[28]

Footnotes

1Summer's total includes two titles which hit number one during the span of time in which Record World's dance chart data is used (see "Statistics and Record World data"). Some Billboard columnists credit Summer with only 15 number-ones.

2Eight of the 11 weeks-at-number-one for "Bad Luck" is during the span of time in which Record World's dance chart data is used (see "Statistics and Record World data").